.--As far as I can determine erythrism has not been
reported in the wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo).
The plumage of a hen (specimen No. 45 in my collection) obtained in 1965 from
Sarasota County, Florida approaches brownish red (color terminology after Pahner, ed.,
1962. "Handbook of North American Birds." Vol. 1, Yale Univ. Press, New Haven and
London) making the term erythristic appropriate.
240 THE WILSON BULLETIN June 1967
Vol. 79, No. 2
Body color.--The contour feathers of the breast are chestnut-brownish red, barred and
speckled with brownish black, tipped with light tawny. The feathers on normal specimens
of similar age are usually blackish brown, barred subterminally with black, and termi-
nally with light shades from tawny to bully brown.
Wings.--Little reddish color occurs in the primaries except on the distal webs. The
secondaries are not barred and are more reddish than the primaries. The gceater upper
secondary coverts are light reddish chestnut barred subtly with blackish brown on the
distal web.
Other plumage. All feathers are more reddish than normal, but some, particularly the
retrices and feathers of the neck region, closely approach normal coloration. The
erythristic specimen has a black beard which by its length (160 ram) suggests ad-
vanced age (Mosby and Handley, 1943. "The Wild Turkey in Virginia," Virginia Comm.
Game and Inland Fisheries, Richmond).
Unfectthered parts.--In life the feet and tarsometatarsi were reddish as in normal
specimens and the eyes and skin of the head and unfeathered portion of the upper neck
were colored typically.
Other examples of erythrism.--I have several retrices and remiges from a reddish
female specimen taken by a hunter near Baldwin in Nassau County, Florida in 1963.
They are similar to the corresponding feathers of specimen No. 45 and include a number
10 juvenal primary by which the individual is known to have been less than one year old
(Petrides, 1945. Auk, 62:223-227). The same hunter reported that he had seen other
reddish turkeys in the area.
In 1963 I saw a reddish adult male near Baldwin and have been told by wildlife
wardens in the area that reddish turkeys had been seen there before.
There is evidence of erythrism in wild Turkeys also from Arkansas and Mississippi.
Mr. Mark Block sent color transparencies and a humeral feather from a brownish-red
adult male taken about two years ago in Arkansas County, Arkansas by Mr. C. Elmer
Bohnert. The specimen was preserved in a life-like mount. Mr. Russell Davis of Jackson,
Mississippi sent a brownish-red feather and a color photograph of a juvenile male from
Clark County, Mississippi taken in 1952. These turkeys were living wild and are be-
lieved to be "wild" Turkeys in the genetic sense. There is little evidence, one way or
the other, concerning their ancestry but there is no reason to consider them to be
products of domestic-wild cross-mating.
In view of the varied plumage coloration in domestic turkey strains, it is natural to
wonder whether genetic exchanges between wild and domestic strains. are responsible
for off-color "wild" Turkeys. Specimen No. 45 has no characteristics of domestic turkeys.
The tarsometatarsus length is 135 mm (measured as suggested by Baldwin, Oberholser,
and Worley, 1931. "Measurements of Birds," Scientific Publications of the Cleveland
Museum of Natural History, Vol. II, Cleveland, Ohio) and the diameter of the middle of
the tarsometatarsus is 15 min. This ratio of tarsometatarsal length to mid-tarsometatarsal
diameter (135:15) compares closely to the same measurements of normal wild specimens.
1/2Domestic turkeys have shorter and very much wider tarsometatarsi.) The specimen's
body conformation, size, and wattling on the head and neck are typical of adult wild
hens in Florida.
I would like to thank Mr. A.D. Dawson of Arcadia, Florida for securing the erythristic
hen specimen. This paper is a contribution of Federal Aid to Wildlife Restoration
Program, Florida Pittman-Robertson Project W-41-R.--LovETT E. WILLIAMS, Ja., Game
aad Fresh Water Fish Commission, Wildlife Research Projects Office, Suite 21, 412
N.E. 16th Avenue, Gainesville, Florida, 24 May 1966.